The night of the Belgrade gig I was too excited to sleep. I kept waking up to hit the refresh button to know the new setlist. The next morning I realised, what the eff. I am too interested to not go. Made the final decision on Saturday morning, bought me a Volvo ticket for 5.30PM that very day, and was in Bangalore by 12 PM on Sunday.

I reached the venue at 3.30 PM ( I did NOT want to hear the opening bands except Parikrama, and they played such a short set too 😦 … ), bought my ticket and sauntered in. The tour merchandise stall held me attention, but I tore myself away, telling myself I really shouldn’t be spending on a tshirt, and walked into the main venue.

I went alone, as mentioned before, so, bored fashion, I sat in the sun, towards the right of the stage, waiting for them to finish. (The band before Cyanide Serenity I quite liked. Not the others). After a while, I couldn’t resist, and made my way to the tour merch stall within the main venue, and bought myself the Final Leg shirt. The one with Eddie in a strait jacket. The price was exorbitant and the quality NOT as good as the Levis ones in 2007.

By about 5.45 I figured that the friends I had been waiting to meet (outside the venue) would never beat the Bangalore traffic, so I began to position myself near the stage. And good thing too, because a few minutes later, the crowd started to thicken.

I got the closest to the stage this time, of all three gigs, and pretty much throughout the concert, saw everything up on the stage. Heck, at one point I even thought I saw Steve looking my way while doing his 180* machine gunning thing 😀

The crowd was better than the Bombay crowd- less poseurs. However, the pushing this time was pretty bad. It WAS responsible for getting me centre-almost front, but I could have done without it. I’m claustrophobic generally, and this was the first time I felt it surfacing during a Maiden gig. I was too squashed to headbang or jump, most of the time.

I saw a lot more girls this time (and not the kinds who came in stilletoes like in 2008!), by themselves (two girls from Calcutta who cussed the taller people in front of them in Bengali :D) and smallish kids. Some kids had to move back during the gig because of the pushing.

The setlist, was as follows-

Aces High

Two Minutes to Midnight

Wrathchild

Children of the Damned

Phantom of the Opera

The Trooper

Wasted Years

The Rime…of the Ancient…Mariner!

Powerslave

Run to the Hills

Fear of the Dark

Hallowed By Thy Name

Iron Maiden

The Number of the Beast

The Evil That Men Do

Sanctuary

The last three were the last three, ofcourse 😛

Not a major fan of the setlist this time. I could have done without Aces High (don’t raise your eyebrows, I just think there are so many better songs they can play!), 2M2M, The Trooper, Run to the Hills, Fear of the Dark, Hallowed (the one song that I have always preferred non-live), and TNOTB to an extent. I seriously think these songs are done to death!

I REALLY wish they wouldn’t have slashed Revelations (my favourite from last time I think!) and Heaven Can Wait (HOW COULD THEY?!!) and Moonchild 😦 😦 AND NO INFINITE DREAMS AGAIN! SOB!

And Fear of the Dark on an SBIT tour?? It’s not even the right time period!!

Sigh.

Anyway, the band was superlative. Bruce was in top-form, and it was something to see the Three Amigos lined up on stage 😀

I’m really looking forward to the next gig, because it will involve a completely new setlist. Can’t wait for the new album!! :D:D:D

Oh, and the whole going alone bit was good in bits and not so good in bits. A concert is definitely more fun when you have company. But travelling alone for over 36 hours was awesome!! 😀 Volvos are really very comfortable, and the endless road journey with your ears plugged into Maiden, Queen, Rainbow, David Bowie, The Who, the Scorpions, Marilyn Manson, Iced Earth etc etc….bliss 🙂

Advertisements

February 8, 2009

I don’t know if I should go for Maiden this time. I shall be alone if I go. The bands that play before Maiden are not really my type of music, other than Parikrama. Lauren Harris I can take out of sheer practice now. So utter boredome during their sets, borne alone, is it a good idea?

I’ve been mooching about indoors and bunking classes pretty much all week, so I was very glad to go out and catch Dev D. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, as I’ve never seen any of the Devdas movies or even read the story. I might have missed some of the nuances, maybe, because of that, but I pretty much loved the movie.

A Deol who can act is a pleasant surprise. It’s also a nice change to have a man going topless pretty frequently in the movie. And I thought the women were pretty powerfully portrayed. The movie is an audio-visual treat (although I wonder if the sound is actually MEANT to be that loud, or whether the hall we watched it in cranked it up too much. Anyway, part of the impression it made on me was because it jarred my eardrums and socked my gut).

I was a little taken aback by the abrupt ending, disappointed, because a cliche was not what I was expecting. Then I realised maybe the happy ending was meant to be short-lived. Towards the end, they show him doubled up in coughing fits a few times, but it isn’t explained nor elaborated upon. I’d like to think, he’ll die pretty soon 🙂